A Pennsylvania cat named Opie has earned himself a parade after sustaining a bullet wound so that his human boy wouldn’t have to.

On Thursday morning, a stray bullet went through Angela Sipe’s window, at which point she immediately ran to check on her sleeping three-year-old son.

“It took me a second to realize what just happened,” Sipe said in an interview with local television station KTLA. “The first thing I did was check on my son and he was sound asleep. Then I saw my cat on the floor and that’s when I realized my cat was shot.”

The bullet went through the couch before striking Opie, at which point it went through the top of his head, out his neck, back into his shoulder and out his “armpit rib area,” according to Sipe, fore ricocheting and burying itself in a pillow, inches from her son.

Although he has some muscle damage Opie is expected to be ok. He was treated at an emergency clinic and underwent surgery. He has a drainage tube and stitches. “I wanted to keep him. He was my son’s little hero, so I need to keep him around,” she said.

Opie’s vet bills have nearly reached $1,000 and he has a follow-up appointment scheduled for Monday.

Basically, Opie was embroidered by a rogue bullet and lived to tell the tail. Wow, what a pun; what a time to be alive.